[Abhay]

Like mooza said, anywhere near nature/greenery or near the sea and without a crowd of people and buildings is a holiday/vacation for me.

[StarVegabond]

Third type is a Family Time along with Friends

This could be as simple as visit by or to friends, pot luck parties where every one brings their food dishes and everyone share and enjoy, dining out with friends, daylong visits to zoo, parks, neighbourhood attractions like waterfalls etc.

Dinners with fellow forum members and canvoy drives have been added to list since last one year. We also had a 10 day long trip in south Karnataka, Ooty, Coonoor last year end in a hired vehicle with friend's family. Previously we had done similar trips around mumbai and pune.

We are extreemly choosy about with whom we want to spend our vacations. generally this choice will come into action "the second time", first time generally it is what i refer as "probationary period". ofcourse it is governed by common interests, perception of values and beliefs, how well the families gell with each other etc etc. There is a invisible circle which seperates friends from all other (often well) known people.

In a nutshell, a Holiday or Vacation with family/friends is a personal time. It is very flexible, do what we want to do, make everyone happy at the end of the vacation and making them remember the days spent together is key. Planning as well as means of execution need to be adapted to achieve this objective/result.

ofcourse like a former PM of UK and a well known writer told.. I do not want to feel at home while on travel

continued...

[MX6]

My holidays and regular days are not much different.

Few notable differences are that instead of staring at a monitor or colleagues or attend meetings, I stare at artefacts, friends, relatives and get in to socialising mood.
Rest of the day progresses the same. Just that the geographical location varies.
Most often I set with a plan that spans the most minute details. But then just like work, holidays as well get derailed. But then we are so used to damage control, back up/ back out mechanism etc.

I don't mix work with holidays, and don't take calls (unless my team member is drowing in the pool and wants to share the server password). Occasionally I check mails, to ensure that I'm still working and not fired!

But I don't mind mixing holidays with work, when I go on business meets to a new place / country, use my free time to do a bit of roaming around, sight-seeing, learning new things etc.

Sometimes, I feel that life itself is one long holiday with showstoppers like work coming in between.

[ampere]

@Star to add to your point, since urban families are increasingly becoming nuclear, the importance of a relatives/friends based vacation is very important from the kids point (and also self!). It also keeps the relationship intact.

Kids should be made to feel that vacation does not always mean drive to an exotic place!

MX where have you been? Did you hear from you for some time.

[TaureanBull]

A really nice thread! I think you mean the Trip Holidays and NOT the weekend holidays.

1. I always plan my holidays and trips in detail after lots of research. Surprises are always there.

2. My holidays are a mix and match of leisure and sight seeing. I make it a point to have evening/mornings free almost everyday. Basically not rushing through.

3. I prefer to begin my holidays at the earliest possible time in the holiday slot and preferable keep a day or better half of a day free after the trip. Settling things down and be ready for next day.

4. My holidays are a total family affair (wherever i go,my family travels) and means of transportation is as per convenience. Train, air, car, walk etc..

5. I dont talk/do office work during this time. BTW I keep my mobile off in the night everyday. There is nothing urgent which can not wait till next day. Fortunately, my contacts are all sane people and dont call at insane times.

[ampere]

One thing which I have realized is that in most cases folks on the drive, plan for food breaks based on feedbacks. There are always exceptions.

In my case, I can do without any time of the, but I need a heavy stomach for breakfast. Cant do without it!

[jeevmenon]

Great thread! Brought to notice by wifey this morning.

So, we were back from the long Eid weekend 1230 km drive and during a casual chat with the boss, the tour is mentioned to him and he says "oh, so you had your vacation," and so my immediate reaction was "that was just my weekend and I am yet to take my PTO in October" Very clear upfront.

Vacation - I call it so, only if I take more than 2 days off from office, club it with the weekend and travel more than 500 km one way away from home. Indeed, the travel bug was sown in early days when at the age of 5, Mom and Dad took us to Kashmir. From there on every LTA was utilised going different places. Those visits as many said have been purely sight-seeing. The main-reason being it comes once a year, so many places and so you will never re-do the same place again, so much money spent traveling such a long distance, vasool karo. It made sense.

Now as AP said, more money, own car, extended-weekends things have changed for me as well. My objective is to go reach the hills, rivers, falls, greenery, rains which I firmly believe is on the western ghats of India. Being on the eastern coast it takes lots of effort to reach the western ghats.

The times I cannot make it to the western ghats, I try to be satisfied with drives in TN, AP. Ah! So, that brings the point of whether you like drives or do you like to visit places.
Myself and wifey have always thought the Greenland Youth Hostel in Kodaikanal - once we should go there, take a novel and sit there looking at the valley for the whole day and each meal just get in and Ramu-kaka will serve us food. But then we think, can we actually do this. We are hyper guys and its max - 30 min and we want to explore something else. Then we thought, Is it because we would want to go home and tell friends/family about the trip - that we were trying to cover max places. We realise, No! Then what is it? Its just the urge to see new things, constantly.

MIL: "We have to visit this place, again and see it well." - She would say this always. Why? Because she probably liked the place so much and wanted to stay more. But would that ever happen? We have a few places which we would like to relax and laze around. But there is always the conflict. There are so many places yet to see, no retracing, no looking back and thats another reason that one squeezes it, I believe.

But our regular haunt is the Tiger Cave - 40 km from here, where we in the real sense relax. No one around, green carpet, huge rocks on them, virgin sea-shore behind and very very less crowd. It always amazes me as to why theres no one around. There's no entry ticket, theres just an ice-cream vendor - maybe the reason why its a little deserted. Maybe the famous Mahabalipuram sights are around.

Similar to what HVK said, we get up at 6:30 on weekdays and 6:00 am on weekends. Get the most out of the 2 day break, grocery, cooking, beach-park, shopping/restaurant at times, its all so hectic. Really dont know when/why this hyper-activeness came about. Another feeling as HVK said, as age goes by the fear that maybe we cannot do it. One other reason, one sits whole day watching some crap TV and suddenly you realise, "Hey, its Sunday afternoon and the weekends gone and we did the simplest thing - sitting in front of the TV. Zero effort."

But the flip side is once a 3 day or a 4 day extended weekend is over and you pack it up, Monday morning one feels like - to get over the weekend tiredness one needs couple of days off

[ampere]

Very well written Jeev. Right through my childhood, every year was one new place. My dad utilized his LTA options to go to all corners of India (And I truly mean all corners). That is how my interests in trains grew ten folds. Its the best to explore the country and with leisure!

However as you say the extended weekend concept has grown lately which allow people to take "mini-breaks". Its a different thing when folks in that mini breaks through thousands of KMs!

[fine69]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Sometimes, I have been to ambitious in planning, and ended up running a race, not a holiday, I hope to avoid such things, lets see!

During one of my very recent trips there was a steep climb in a fort and since I was running out of time I asked my wife to hurry up as we had a few more places to cover that day.
My wife, being the cutie that she is, started walking back instead and said that if I plan to convert this vacation in to a marathon then she ain't game.

You've actually said the right thing, to each his own.

[jeevmenon]

fine69: So there are similar people everywhere

Once we were in Golkonda fort. We saw it from a distance, we were tired, looked at each other, settled down on the grass and said thats the fort, looks good. 10 min and back into the taxi

Another incident: Kanchipuram temple - Darshan from the confines of the AC Van, as it was noon during summer and in TN

[ampere]

Even I have done at many places. I have visited Ooty so many times, but go only two places at a time!
So is the case with places like Chikmagulur! This time we just visited Halebid and Ayyanakere.

I would rather spend more days and then go to few places at a time.

[fine69]

Originally Posted by jeevmenon

fine69: So there are similar people everywhere

Once we were in Golkonda fort. We saw it from a distance, we were tired, looked at each other, settled down on the grass and said thats the fort, looks good.

I believe the weather also plays a big role here, when I visited the Kumbhalgarh fort, though it was just a little hot, but that made me rush thing even when I didn't really want to.

[GTO]

For me, a holiday has three primary objectives:

- People : Whether I'm with family and / or friends, the best part about a holiday is to spend endless hours with those who matter. Talk about small & big things alike. Have some hearty laughs, keep things positive and bond.

- Fun : Stuff you love to do! Whether its sight seeing, go-karting, horse riding etc.

- Relax : Wake up naturally, and not to an alarm clock. Time off for leisure reading, kerala massages, meditation...keep a nice balance between pt 2 & 3.

I'd rather do 4 - 5 things a day, than cram 10 activities, do none of them well and return completely exhausted to the room.

[ampere]

One aspect of a holiday is also the X-Factor of finding something unknown.
We all hope that the unknown turns out to be pleasant rather than a bitter pill.

While the aspects of travel/stay etc are worked out the last details, we do need to
leave certain aspects in the open such, we can also treat ourselves to some pleasant surprises.


Company of Family/Friends is crucial and forms the back-bone of any holiday. No point being a "Wordsworthian" Solitary Reaper.
But I have seen a lot of that clan too!

[ampere]

While pondering over the same topic yesterday, had some new/existing insights:

1. Even long distance vacations, today are preferred to be driven rather than flight/train. So folks, still prefer to break on the road at a good highway hotel and continue. This may reduce the # of days to be spent at destination. But as every says, its the journey and not the destination.

Why I bring forth this already known point?

Because there are people like me who are real sedate drivers and like to take it easy on the road and not push for it. For such folks some times too long a drive with multiple breaks on the road may not work out. I for example may not do more 400Km in a day (Can be extended if it amounts to driving mostly on GQ like conditions).

A case in point: Such people would never drive to Leh, but prefer flying. Though they would know, it would be wonderful to drive.

2. Another thing which I feel is increasingly tilting the scales towards driving are gadgets. Usage of Cam-corders, DSLRs, GPS devices, netbooks, and requirement of various charger cables etc are on the rise and they require a separate baggage itself to be carried. Folks do not want to risk carrying such costly items on public transport. (I myself learnt my lesson after 2 P&S Canon).

So I sometimes wonder, how I would manage to carry a good DSLR to Leh on a flight? (Hand carry and guard it with my life?) In that it really becomes a botheration, as to every time ones constantly needs to be on guard.